Well one way to be rational is just ask someone who was not involved in creating the new idea to check it for you, a "peer review" it is often called. That would likely have spotted the math snafu. But for the next time...

I'd say you are probably best not asking in open forum, but send messages to a few members who you think are going to give a balanced view, and the moderators who would have to police the bad action you can get if you give a reward for certain forum activity.

A typical member just wants free stuff so most members won't give you a useful response. I know you are trying to build a community so a degree of fun and free stuff helps stoke some interest.

I'd begin with a private correspondence with say @ndalby first and come back to us.

There is no perfect system, but as a guide:

rewarding for likes received encourages fake accounts to back-slap each other.

rewarding for likes given just encourages folks to click on like (which is nil value, oh and we have a member which does that all the time).

Very well thought out sir. To add to @nigelhealy's thorough reply, I suggest replies to have a minimum word count to receive points, say maybe 10. Too many "congratulations winners" replies and even though it is a kind gesture there is no need to reward it unless it is more thought out.

Click on "received" "given" all the columns then look if you recognize their valued contribution.

I think more about filtering to get through to the more interested in Anker and seeking to help a community. Given the prizes are in the $10-$150 region if you filter hard enough the timewasters will go elsewhere.

So for example, if the like of a "senior" member was of more value, and getting to "senior" member took effort, then you would filter out the bots and time-wasters. So say a like was of only possible it if came from a "senior" member and to get to senior involved a more thorough analysis....

I do not want to write the algorithm for Anker. I'll happily input a sanity-check once Anker has huddled with the moderators.

Reversing the points back to previous values would, I believe, encourage the previous mentality of posting / liking or asking for thread stickies to boost ranks (which now include usable raffle bucks also), it makes it more of a game to see who can get to the next level first rather than posting for the sake of posting something useful or that could be a good "community" conversation piece. At the rate of some members Snr/Exec/VIP could be made within 6-18 months under that system.

Is 12 years excessive, well some could argue yes but in the same light are people here to post because they want to or just to increase their ratings / ranks and now bucks (which should be treated as a bonus not pure incentive)? Say you can hit VIP status sooner, what then? Are your posting days over because there is nothing else to aim for? Is it really the be all, end all?

Let's say someone hits VIP status, does it guarantee perks mentioned and if you keep going higher, what level of perks would be wanted next, shares, CEO, your mortgage paid off (joking )? Some of the perks have already been obtained by members just by being useful and active and not just by hitting a level on the points system.

If tweaks are to be made I would go the route of restructuring the levels in the first instance, rather than the points (although I have mentioned stickies should be higher value). Some of @nigelhealy points also have some merit in future tweaks of the forum.

I think the sweet spot is more like 2 years. Anyone helping out the community that much (keep in mind to reach VIP in 2 years, you'd have to create a new thread 5 times every day), is likely dedicated to helping the community. I was continuing to make posts and reply even when we didn't know of anything there was to work for.

I think Anker will step in if it is obvious a user is making multiple posts every day for the main purpose of getting to VIP status. That being said, that hasn't really been an issue so far and I see no reason as to why it would start now. Plus, lots of great those people may come from sources like social media. I don't think Anker is going to advertise the benefits of senior, executive, or VIP membership on social media. And, those people probably don't have the "time" or desire to dig into the site themselves and discover that info. And even if they did, I don't think many, if any, would post for 2-3 years knowing that chances are they will get caught by @AnkerOfficial, you or @TechnicallyWell and no longer have the ability to earn pts or something along those lines.

In other words, I don't foresee it as something we should be very concerned about.

I still think it would be easier (and not cause as many issues as advertised) to revert back to the previous pts system and just keep the level requirement.

Also consider that if we go the pts route some of us would have already earned pts from the previous system (just makes it more complex).

If after reading all this you still think it would be better to just change the pts required to get to VIP status, this is my suggestion. Remember, @AnkerOfficial thought it should take just over a year for @nigelhealy and I to become VIP members. That takes a lot of dedication, as it should. IMO it would be necessary to rework all the levels. That would also require starting over everyone's pts and possibly give them gifts based on how many they had.

Now, if you posted 5 threads per day, replied 5 times a day, liked 5 times a day, get replied to 5 times a day, and get liked 5 times a day, then it would take you 2.5 years to reach VIP status. So basically that would mean Anker is encouraging everyone to make at least 4,545 posts to get to VIP status if they want to get there in the shortest time possible. Do we really want that?

That's why I think it would be easier (for Anke and everyone) to just revert back to the old pts system.

Looking at the topics created ALLTIME in order. Go down to member number 3 and you have 45 topics created x 5 points/topic=225 points. Can't see too many reaching VIP in this lifetime. Except King @joshuad11 Oh great leader

It's those kind of stats which no doubt spurred on the decision to revamp the points systems to align with the introduction of bucks (more points = more bucks and higher levels mean higher bonus bucks). Allowing a minus of 2-3 on thread creations since the new points system came into effect and you would have under the old system for the top 5 ranked by created threads (not including @AnkerOfficial );

Then take into account the previous 5pts no daily limit if your post is liked (some likes do go into the thousands) or the 'replies on/to replies' in threads that could be done via PM yet still generate for the thread starter...and in fairness if someone responds to your post your going to respond back...

Under the old system, a user maxing out the daily set limits could be generating 570pts, or more with likes...

I've been contributing my time, effort and help at the Apple Support Communities (ASCs) forum starting well over ten years ago. Within the past month or so, I finally achieved Level 6 (8,000 points) which gives one certain ASC privileges, accesses and some other perks available only to Level 6 (or above) members. Getting above Level 6 gains you nothing else but status (if that's what you're looking to achieve). Advancing in a forum like the ASCs takes a lot of time and effort and the will to help. Points are only awarded to members by helping/answering/solving technical issues by those who have actually asked the question/have the issue/etc. Your own post count make zero difference.

These things take time...one would need to be in it for the long haul.

I recommend that the "like" button remain but it comes with no reward. It is then just a person to person way to say you like it, but a reward simply causes some to just like to earn points, which undermines the whole point of a like.

At this stage there is no indication this is an issue because if you order its roughly correlates to genuine engagement, but if you give rewards based on likes then that could change.

Was referring more to the previous system, where there was no cap. Now they are limited for both giving and receiving (5pts each), it should make end users think more about giving them to genuine good comments / answers / support etc if they want the receiver to generate a buck as a thank you reward.

Giving out likes only helps your points to a total of 5 a day, not buck count.

Either way, it's still kinda early to see how this new points system pans out, that should become more clear in the next giveaways.

Personally I can't understand the preoccupation for some with hitting Snr/Exec/VIP level, once there, then what? What additional rewards would make them want to continue if the possible mod / discount / product previews fail to fulfil the gap they want to fill...

I'm moderator of another forum for about 9 years now and I keep 3 active moderators at any time, one in Europe, one in USA, one in Asia, so we have a reasonable respond, and we notify the other moderators if we're going offline for a long period so they know to crank up their attentiveness.